Daddy's Girl: Second Take
by nugget1999
Summary: A longer, more in-depth do-over of Daddy's Girl. The first three chapters are on the house! Enjoy!
1. The First Night

"Rattmann! Rattmann!" Cave Johnson's voice boomed on the loudspeakers, "Get down to my office ASAP! And by ASAP, I mean NOW! That will be all."

Doug Rattmann gulped and reluctantly headed to Johnson's office. He certainly hoped he wasn't in trouble. Doug suffered from schizophrenia, and he often had both visual and auditory hallucinations. He hoped and wished this was one.

Rattmann stepped into Cave's office and closed the door and said, "Yeah, Cave?"

Cave replied, "Doug, I've got a dilemma I believe—no, _know_—you can solve. You see, my secretary, Caroline—she gave birth to Chell."

Doug said, "Oh, uh…congratulations…?"

Cave pounded his fist on the desk. "SHUT YER PIEHOLE, YOU IGNORANT SCHIZO! We can't raise her—it's hard enough keeping Black Mesa out of here—a child would put us in shambles."

Doug asked, "So what does this have to do with me?"

Cave calmed down and reclined in his chair. "sigh, Rattmann—you are going to raise Chell. You're smart. You're crazy—I like that."

Doug protested, "Uh, Cave—that's exactly why I can't raise her—I'm crazy. Why would you want that?"

Cave leaned in close to Rattmann and said, "I'll answer that with a question—do you want to keep your job?"

Doug sighed. "Yes," he answered.

Cave smiled. "Good!" he said. "She'll be there when you get home."  
Doug drove home, very unhappy. This was going to suck.

Well, he got home to find a little baby in a crib in his home. How they managed to get her in there was beyond him. He went to the crib. There was a blanket wrapped around her that said, "Chell." We leaned over the crib and looked at her.

"Uh, hey," he said, "Um, Chell, I guess your name is, uh, I'm Doug…Doug, uh, Doug Rattmann. What's up? Oh, what am I doing, you can't understand me."

Chell started wailing. Rattmann panicked.

"No, now come on, don't cry!" he said, "What do you want? Food? Come on, communicate with me!"

Chell just continued screaming.

Doug saw a bag near Chell's crib. In it were many essential things for babies, such as several bottles of milk, pacifier, binky, things like that. Doug grabbed a bottle and tried to put it into Chell's mouth. Chell turned away.

Doug got a bit aggravated. "Come on now! Eat!—Or drink, I—Ugh! Point is, you need to eat!" Chell refused the bottle. Doug picked her up and tried again. "Come on now," he said loudly, "If you don't eat you'll die. If you die Cave will have my head on a mantle!" Chell still didn't do it. The voices in Rattmann's head started to speak. His medicine was wearing off.

_Come on, Doug,_ they said, _She doesn't need it. Let her starve. Throw into the wall if you want to. If Cave cared so much about her, he and Caroline would've kept her._

Doug thought it over, and was starting to agree, but snapped out of it. "NO!" he yelled, subconsciously cradling Chell. "I WON'T! I—I'll lose my job, and—good god, she's a baby! She needs a father! And I guess—I guess I'll be her father." He looked down again to see Chell happily drinking the milk. Doug smiled. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad.


	2. Like Father, Like Daughter

Cave Johnson called Doug to his office again to ask him for a full report on Chell.

"Sleeping happily, babysitter watching over." Doug reported.

Cave showed a hint of anxiety. "Babysitter?" he asked.

Doug said, "Come on, Cave, I can't—I can't bring a baby _here_. It's too dangerous. Between our gels and combustible lemons, 'safe work environment' is out of the picture."

Cave nodded in agreement. "I guess so." Cave's face became serious. "Black Mesa's struck again."

Doug asked, "What? What'd they steal this time?"

Cave answered angrily, "An entire ship! The _Borealis_!"

Surprise showed on Rattmann's face. "What? How?"

"We don't know!"

"Oh, well, uh…we have a problem." Doug said to himself. His cell phone rang. "Hold on," said Doug. He lifted the phone to his ear. "Hello," he said, "Rattmann here."

"Yeah, uh, Doug," his babysitter said nervously, "Chell won't eat."

Doug smiled a little. "Yeah, about that…" he answered, "She's a little hard-headed…all you have to do is cradle her a while."

He hung up. "That was about Chell," he said to Cave, "And she is like father, like daughter sometimes."

Cave grunted, "Oh, shut up."

Doug left Cave's office. While he was making his way back to the labs, Rick, the Adventure Core, talked to him.

"Oh, hey, Rattmann!" he said in a manly voice, "You wanna go on an adventure?"

"No Rick, I have work," Doug said.

Rick rolled his eye and said, "Oh, right, _that_. What's the point of doin' some nerd numbers when you could be celebrating EXPLOSION DAY!"

Doug chuckled and replied, "Sorry, no. I'm having a little too much of an adventure raising my daughter."

Rick showed interest. "Oh really, huh? Raising a pretty lady?"

Doug said, annoyed, "Rick, she's not even a week old."

Rick said, "Oh! Uh…forget I said anything." He left.


	3. Exile Vilify

Doug snapped back to reality. 729 days had passed since GLaDOS flooded the facility with neurotoxin. 729 days since he'd seen Chell. He counted. Rattmann sighed deeply. Today was her birthday. 10th. And she was in this facility, with GLaDOS.

The former scientist shed a tear and said to himself, "Happy birthday, Chell."

"Thank you, daddy," Chell responded. Doug jumped up.

"Chell! You're here!" he cried. He ran over to hug her but grasped nothing. It was just a vision. Doug ran straight into the wall. He leaned against it, pressing his face against it. He pounded on the wall.

"NO!" he yelled, "NNOOO!"

Behind him, a radio was playing:

_"Exile._

_ It takes your mind again._

_ Exile._

_ It takes your mind again."_

"Doug, what are you humming exactly?" Cave Johnson asked Doug.

Doug answered, "Exile Vilify. My favorite song."

A worker knocked on Cave's door.

"Uncle Johnson! There's some girl in our testing facilities!" he called.

Cave said, "Uncle…?"

Rattmann ran to the testing facility immediately and saw Chell. Doug bolted to her and lifted her up. Being a small girl of only four, this was not difficult.  
"Chell, honey, I told you never to be in here!" he said to her.

Chell replied, "I'm sorry, daddy. I missed you."

A smile came across Doug's face. "Oh, it's okay, sweetie. Just don't do it again."

_"You've got sucker's_

_ luck._

_ Have you given_

_ up?"_

Doug retreated from the wall, crying. The companion cube spoke to him:

"What are you going to do?"

Rattmann took a good, long look at the pink cube. For many minutes he just stared at it, lightly crying. He sat down and put his palms on his face.

The cube said again: "What are you going to do?"

Rattmann said thru his fingers, "I don't know."

_"Does it feel like a trial?_

_ Does it worry your mind_

_ the way_

_ you trouble mine?"_

"By the way, Doug, your daughter is wonderful!" Doctor Helen Morrison complimented.

Doug chuckled. "Yeah, she is." He turned his head toward Chell, who was playing with another little girl. Both were six. He turned back to Dr. Morrison and said, "And your daughter, Mel, is quite lovely. Those two are getting along so well."

"Oh, uh, how's the whole GLaDOS thing coming along?" asked Dr. Morrison.

Doug sighed. "Well…"

_ "Vilify._

_ Don't even try._

_ Vilify._

_ Don't even try."_

The cube responded, "Well, you can't sit here for the rest of your life."

Rattmann yelled, "I'm not running away! Not until Chell's safe!"

Doug picked up a paintbrush and began a new painting.

_"Oh, you meant so_

_ much._

_ Have you given_

_ up?"_

He began stroking the paintbrush onto the wall, and an explosion of madness happened. A recounting of that fateful day. All in the scribbles and doodles of a man driven mad.

As he dipped his brush into the different buckets, he listened to that song and thought about his failures.

_"Does it feel like a trial?_

_ Does it trouble your mind_

_ the way_

_ you trouble mine?"_

"Is a morality core all you're going to use?" Doug asked with concern.

His fellow scientist replied, "Yes."

"That won't work," Doug warned.

"And why is that?"

Doug's voice became low and sober and he answered, "You can always ignore your conscience."


	4. Black Mesa

**Hey Fwiends! This one was a doozy-What you are reading now is the updated chapter. Shout-out to CheezyPortalFan for the helping me with the G-Man dialogue!**

"You're doing WHAT?!" Doug demanded.

Cave said awkwardly, "We're uh, we're moving you to Mesa. We can't afford as many workers anymore…I'm sorry."

Doug gritted his teeth. "Not yet, you aren't."

Cave then said, "So, uh…could I say bye to Chell?"

Doug boiled up with anger. "NO!" he yelled, "You fire me and send me to your competition and then have the audacity to say something like that? GOOD GOD! I'M her father, I've been her father for FIVE YEARS! So, no!"

Doug stormed down to his office, where Chell was waiting for him. "Hi daddy!" she said.

Doug lifted her up and said, "Okay, Chell, we're leaving. I've been laid off."

At 2 a.m. Doug got a call from Black Mesa. He groaned, crawled out of bed, and picked up the phone.

On the other end was a voice that was very slow, yet commanding. It said, "Rise and shine, Mr. Rattmann, rise and shine."

Doug rubbed his eyes and replied, "I'm wide awake, thanks to you. What do you need?"

The man on the phone answered, "My employers have informed me to inform you that, um, your daughter…you can't bring her to work."

Doug demanded, "How do you know about her?!"

The man answered calmly, "That isn't important. Also, be at work tomorrow by 7:00 sharp." A click was heard, then the constant hum followed afterward.

The next day Doug woke up, got dressed, took his medicine, and woke up Chell.

"Alright, Chell, First day of school!" he said. Chell cried and latched onto Doug.

"No! Daddy! Please don't make me go!" she begged.

Rattmann looked the little girl in the eyes. "Look, darling, education is important…you need to go to school. I'm sorry."

After enduring a lot of protest from Chell, Doug finally made it to Black Mesa. Three minutes late. He gulped and entered the huge facility.

He said to the first man he saw, "Um, excuse me—I'm Dr. Rattmann, the new guy."

The man gave him a distasteful look and said, "You're late."

"Yeah, uh, sorry about that."

A voice that seemed to come out of nowhere said, "Relax, Charles. He's with me."

Doug followed the man who said that. The man was tall, with radiant green eyes, and he wore a dark blue suit, and carried a briefcase. Doug suddenly remembered: We was the guy on the phone!

The man explained, "You may call me the G-Man. It is somewhat...important, that you are not...late, as it is not approved of here...but no one must...know of this. It may also be wise to not...share your 'disability' with others, as that is not approved of either. My employers seem to believe you are...required, for their purposes. They want to see the...sacrifices, you will make for your daughter...firsthand. In the meantime, you are to...work with your partner, Gordon Freeman." G-Man gestured toward Gordon and left swiftly, leaving Doug wondering how he knew all this.

Gordon said, "Hey, Dr. Rattmann. Pleasure to meet you. Our job is to finish the Gravity Gun."

Doug gritted his teeth. "_My _Gravity Gun that _you_ stole from Aperture."

Gordon sighed and admitted, "Yes, Black Mesa did steal it. But none of that matters anymore. What matters is now you're here, and you can finish what you started."


	5. Bring Your Daughter To Work Day

"Daddy, what is your hypothesis on the potato battery?" Chell asked Doug as he drove them to Aperture.

Doug smiled and replied to Chell, "My hypothesis is Mr. Johnson will fire whoever ordered all those potatoes." Little did he know Cave had died 2 years ago. After the whole Mesa thing, Doug didn't even care to know.

At the first annual 'Bring Your Daughter to Work Day,' Chell presented a potato, an old one, that generated 1.7 watts of energy. She won. Rattmann smiled with pride as Dr. Morrison snapped a picture of him and his daughter.

That's when GLaDOS voice informed everyone of neurotoxin in the facility. As everyone ran and rushed around frantically, Doug zoned out, as if it didn't matter. He never could explain it, it just happened. When he snapped out of it, Chell was gone. He ran to find her, but realizing GLaDOS was in the same room as Chell, Doug went to his first den, hiding away from her.

That was 12 years ago. It had been only days since he'd seen Chell, although she hadn't seen him. Recently, GLaDOS had been trying to trick Chell with the promise of cake. Doug frantically wrote on the wall, 'the cake is a lie' over and over again. He looked thru the window and saw Chell. He was about to yell and beat on the window so she would see him, but his trusty companion cube stopped him.

"Don't," he told him, "If Chell sees you, GLaDOS will, and you two will never be reunited." Doug walked away from the window.

"You're right," he muttered. He looked at the mugs he had laid out. There were five.

The first one he picked up said, "Love my work, hate my boss." An image of Cave Johnson flashed in his mind. Doug yelled, "Screw you, Cave!" and threw it against the wall, shattering it to pieces.

The second he picked up said, "ALPHA MALE." Doug thought back to his first and only girlfriend, who was so controlling over him. Doug yelled, "Screw you too, Pauline!" and smashed that mug as well.

Then he picked up a mug that said, "Who farted?" He was so blind in rage he threw it against the wall too, and yelled, "Screw YOU, fart jokes! You aren't funny!"

The fourth one said, "Aperture Science: Aiming to the future." He picked it up, threw it against the wall and said, "The future? YEAH RIGHT!"

The final one read, "Number One Dad." Doug picked it up, read it, and said, "Number One Dad? WHAT! A!"-He threw it against the wall.-"JOKE!"

He collapsed onto the ground and began sobbing. "I understand now," he said, "This is the sacrifice."


	6. Friendships

"Doug! Doug!" Yelled Doug's best friend, "I need you over here!"

Doug went to him immediately. "Yeah, Harvey?" he asked.

Harvey smiled. "My wife gave birth. I'm a father now!"

Doug high-fived him. "Yeah! That's great! Congrats, man!"

"Thank you," replied Harvey, "In all seriousness, you're a father—a single one, too—any pointers?"

Doug shrugged. "Well, uh, what questions do you have?"

Harvey asked, "Should I have only a family car, or can I have a personal car?"

Doug held up his hands almost defensively. "Whoa there, cowboy, you need to realize something first—once you have kids, _nothing_ is personal anymore."

Harvey laughed and said, "Okay, then—nothing is mine anymore. Got it. Hey, how old is your daughter now?"

Doug responded, "Four."

Harvey shook his head. "It's a shame it's just you—I need to hook you up with someone, man."

Doug said, "Cool, nice, but uh, I've been in one relationship—and it ended horribly."

Harvey nodded and said, "Ah, yes. Pauline. Can't believe she almost got you to go to jail for her. C'mon man, not all women are like that."

"I know, Harvey, but I just—guh, I'm married to my work now, okay?"

Harvey laughed. "Yeah, you have a great commitment, man! Well, I have to go find Rusty the Submarine Core. Someone fell into the slime again."

Once Harvey left, Doug gathered up some beans, mugs, and supplies, and snuck into a hidden hole in the wall. He placed the items in the room the hole led to, and stealthily crawled out and concealed the hole. All of a sudden a voice said, "Douglas! There you are!"

The voice belonged to Betty, the goals, dreams, and motivations core. Doug wiped his brow and said, "Betty, I hate it when you call me that!"

Doug entered the hole, and concealed it. He sat and listened to the muffled screams of the dying scientists. All Doug could do was hope Chell was alive. This was a curse in of itself. The choking cries for help made Doug feel a little guilty. He was safe.

When the screaming ceased, he peaked out the hole and saw, on the ground, Harvey. Dead. Rattmann backed away.

"I could have saved them," he muttered, "I could have saved them."

"Cave Johnson here!" Cave's voice boomed on the loudspeaker, "The lab boys inform me to inform you to NOT fall into the slime in each test chambers. It isn't any ordinary slime—it will actually disintegrate your body. Also, half our stock of beans have gone missing. Anyone seen them?"

Betty said, "Oh gosh, well there's a new goal—don't fall in the slime. Well, seeya, Douglas!"

A nine-year-old boy ran in the fields alone, away from the other children, but giggled, shouting, "Come back!"

His parents were concerned. With what started as what they thought was just an imaginary friend became something much deeper.

The boy's mother watched, and said to the father, "Allen, I'm worried about Douglas. This 'Cube' friend of his—he takes it way too seriously."

Allen replied, "Oh, come on, Sara. It's probably just a phase."

Sara responded, "But for 5 years? Doesn't sound like a phase to me!"

All of a sudden a little girl ran to Allen and Sara, wailing: "Mr. Rattmann! Mrs. Rattmann! Douglas bit me!"

Sara gasped and called Doug over. "Doug," she said in an assertive voice, "did you bite this girl?"

Doug made no attempt to hide what he did. He simply said, "Yes, mommy."

Allen asked, "And why did you bite her?"

Doug answered, "Because, Daddy, Cube told me to."

Later that day the doctor gave Allen and Sara the diagnosis.

"I'm afraid to tell you two that, uh…your son has Schizophrenia." He told them.

Doug was given medicine and never saw his friend Cube ever again. As he thought about this in one of his dens, he wrote on the wall:

**Though earth and man are gone.**  
**I thought the cube would last forever.**

**I was WRONG.**

**Not in cruelty**  
**Not in wrath**  
**The REAPER came today;**  
**An ANGEL visited**  
**this gray path,**  
**And took the cube away**


	7. The Morrisons

Doug awoke from his deep slumber. It was all a little fuzzy, but he calculated he had been in cryogenic sleep for 1500 years. How he managed to last the long he did not know, since he put all the cryogenic supply into Chell's chamber. She wasn't awake yet, and so he went back to his unused dens, waiting. He painted a few more pictures.

One day he noticed Betty talking to a woman. The woman was not Chell, but she had been awakened from her chamber. The woman looked familiar, but Doug did not make himself seen. The Animal King turret was on the loose, last thing he needed was to be killed by him. Doug retreated to his den, and painted a new painting. A painting of the woman.

Doug was sneaking to his next den when he noticed the woman again. He saw her again later on. She had found one of his dens. She encountered the oracle turret and eventually was shot in the leg by another turret.

Rattmann ran out from hiding and pushed the turret over. The turret shot wildly and then shut down, saying, "I don't hate you."

Doug lifted up the woman and carried her to his den. Betty looked at the den and looked at Doug and said, "So you're the one who took all those beans." Doug put down the woman gently and tied up her wound, stopping the bleeding. That was all he could really do.

Then the cube said, "Doug! She's waking up!"

Doug replied, "I know she is, Cube! Jesus!"

Cube said in a joking manner, "Don't bite her."

Doug rolled his eyes. Then he noticed the woman staring at him. He said, "Oh! Hey, uh, how ya doin'?"

She rubbed her eyes and groaned, "Terrible. Who are you?"

Doug said, "I'm Doug Rattmann."

Her eyes widened. "Mr. Rattmann? You mean Chell's father?"

Doug hen recognized the woman and said, "It's great to see you again, Mel."

Chell was four. She and Mel played in the park, while Doug and Helen sat on the bench, talking.

"So then I said, 'Combustible lemons? What's next, gasoline lemonade?'," Doug finished his story. Helen let out a little laugh.

"Oh, I tell you what, Doug, you're a riot!" she laughed, "I'm telling you, any lady would be lucky to have you!"

Doug asked, "Speaking of which, is there a Mister Morrison?"

Helen let out a sigh and said, "There was. He was a gambler and a drinker. I thought having Mel would change that. Instead he left us when she was only 2 months old. Now he's probably in Vegas, blowing off what little money he has."

Doug said, "That sucks. I used to have a friend named Cube."

Helen asked, "Cube?"

Doug explained, "He was a hallucination—er, don't tell anyone, but I have Schizophrenia. I was four when I began seeing him. Whenever I took my medicine, he went away. Sometimes I purposely didn't take them, so I could see him again. I'm sure right now he's in Schizophrenic Vegas. But that doesn't matter. Chell is real, and Cube would get in the way of her."

Helen smiled and said, "I'm so glad I have you in my life. You're the only one who understands." She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and took Mel home with her. Doug sat in awe. All that ran thru his mind was:

_Did she just…no she…_

_ Did she just kiss me?_

_ Did that just…man…_

_ Not that I'm complaining, it's just…_

_ Could she be the one?_

_ No, man, she…well, actually…_

He smiled and said, "Chell! Let's go home!"


	8. Escape From Aperture

Doug pulled his hair and stayed in the fetal position. Ten years he had been stuck in Aperture. And that's not counting the centuries he spent in cryogenic sleep. Mel had escaped, but Doug chose—yes, _chose_—to stay. He wasn't going to leave until Chell did.

However, he couldn't take it anymore. He felt angry and alone. And he did something he hadn't done in a long time: he rambled. As a child his parents told him if he ever began to ramble, he needed to count to ten to calm himself down. Doug had been counting ten the whole time he'd been stuck in Aperture, but no longer would he do it. He said, in jumbled words and phrases:

"You're lonely without him! Johnson is a MUST, he's in charge! I have no choice, help me Uncle Johnson! Help me choose my desire! Come…come wash away all my desire so I don't do it. They took me to Mesa. They're mutilations! It's coming soon! It's been stolen! The ship is stolen! The pain in battle, pain is a common feeling! He's dead. Harvey is dead! But she lives! Be strong little Chell, you can do it. The ship is gone…the ship is gone! Mesa Hill! That's where it all started! Way down in the hole! And now Chell Johnson happened! Little girl, it's okay, the pain is numbed by a little pill."

Unbeknownst to him, Chell was on the other side, looking at his painting, and listening to his ramblings. She eventually defeated Wheatley alongside GLaDOS and was set free by GLaDOS. Then three hours by, until one day Doug was found.

There was a short one with a blue eye and a tall one with an orange eye. Atlas and P-Body. GLaDOS's voice sounded.

"Why, hello, Douglas. Have you renewed your prescription?" she asked.

Doug said, "No. You know I haven't, you monster."

GLaDOS gasped. "Monster? You clearly have missed a lot. You were probably too buy talking to yourself to notice."

Doug looked at P-Body and Atlas and said, "So is this it? Are you going to kill me?"

If GLaDOS could laugh, she certainly would have. Atlas handed Doug a pill bottle, full and new. Schizophrenia medicine. GLaDOS said, "No, Doug, I'm setting you free. Go, go find Chell."

Doug went into the elevator and went up to the surface and left the facility, which looked like a shed from the outside. He saw a woman sitting on a burnt cube, looking up at the sky. Doug stumbled out of the shed and cried hoarsely, "CHELL!"

Chell turned around. Her eyes lit up.

"Daddy?"


End file.
